This morning I discovered a problem with the transfer of recordings from my TiVo Premeire DVR to my personal computer over my home's wired network using my licensed copy of the TiVo Desktop Plus software.

After I'd picked recordings to transfer from the list of recordings displayed in the TiVo Desktop Plus, and selected the "Start Transfer" button, it appeared at first that all was working as normal. But after a few seconds the TiVo Desktop Plus software displayed the message "Some transfers have been interrupted". When I then selected the "Transfer Status" tab I saw that each recording title is preceded with a red "X", and that there is a notation of "X The system cannot find the file specified" for each of the selected files.

All of the recordings were made within the last 72 hours. I restarted my TiVo box using the it's settings menu system, and then by disconnecting/reconnecting the power cord several times. I've shut down and restarted my computer several times. I've disconnected/reconnected the power from my network's router, as well as reset it to factory settings and set it up again to fit my network. And I've uninstalled/reinstalled the TiVo Desktop software. None of those actions have resolved the issue.

TiVo (Online chat) support just informed me a few minutes ago that it appears that recent updates from Microsoft installed to my personal computer (Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit) yesterday are apparently the source of the same, or similar problem which I'm experiencing, and asked that I wait 24-48 hours to see if additional updates are released to fix the problem.

At TiVo Support's request I reviewed the list of updates to my Windows Operating System and found that "security" updates identified as KB2792100, KB2310138, KB2790655, KB2790113, KB2797052, KB2789642, KB2778344, and KB2799494 had been installed during the last 24 hours.

TiVo (Online chat) support just informed me a few minutes ago that it appears that recent updates from Microsoft installed to my personal computer (Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit) yesterday are apparently the source of the same, or similar problem which I'm experiencing, and asked that I wait 24-48 hours to see if additional updates are released to fix the problem.

At TiVo Support's request I reviewed the list of updates to my Windows Operating System and found that "security" updates identified as KB2792100, KB2310138, KB2790655, KB2790113, KB2797052, KB2789642, KB2778344, and KB2799494 had been installed during the last 24 hours.

As with the the last two problems that affected everyone, TiVo support is full of it.

Setting my computer's calendar date back to February 13, 2013 worked for me too.

TiVo (Online chat) support just informed me a few minutes ago that it appears that recent updates from Microsoft installed to my personal computer (Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit) yesterday are apparently the source of the same, or similar problem which I'm experiencing, and asked that I wait 24-48 hours to see if additional updates are released to fix the problem.

At TiVo Support's request I reviewed the list of updates to my Windows Operating System and found that "security" updates identified as KB2792100, KB2310138, KB2790655, KB2790113, KB2797052, KB2789642, KB2778344, and KB2799494 had been installed during the last 24 hours.

I suspect lpwcomp is right, and Tivo may be confused - or not telling the truth - about the source of the problem. I experienced the exact same problem, and the exact same fix worked, HOWEVER, I hadn't turned my computer off for a number of days before the downloads started failing (therefore no operating system changes could have been made, even if they were automatically downloaded) and Tivo Desktop Plus had been working fine hours before it started failing, and the computer definitely hadn't been off, or had an interruption of power since the time the downloading was working and the time it stopped working. And the computer also never flashed the usual message about their being updates waiting to be implemented.

Just "chatted" with Tivo support to see what they would say re the issue, and was given the same line about it being a Microsoft update. Told them what I just said above, which he didn't comment on. Also told him about changing the clock solving the problem, which he didn't seem to know about. Asked him if he knew of any other workarounds (since changing the clock could conceivably mess up other things on my computer, and it confuses me when I look at the date until I remember) and he said he'd heard that doing a system restore from a few days before would also resolve the problem. Neither is a great resolution, but I'd rather change the clock than do a system restore and lose the last couple of days worth of work.

He said they're working on a software update that will resolve the problem, and just to be sure I made him clarify we should expect one from Tivo, not from Microsoft, that will resolve the problem, but he didn't have an estimate for how long it would be before it was available.

I suspect lpwcomp is right, and Tivo may be confused - or not telling the truth - about the source of the problem. I experienced the exact same problem, and the exact same fix worked, HOWEVER, I hadn't turned my computer off for a number of days before the downloads started failing (therefore no operating system changes could have been made, even if they were automatically downloaded) and Tivo Desktop Plus had been working fine hours before it started failing, and the computer definitely hadn't been off, or had an interruption of power since the time the downloading was working and the time it stopped working. And the computer also never flashed the usual message about their being updates waiting to be implemented.

Just "chatted" with Tivo support to see what they would say re the issue, and was given the same line about it being a Microsoft update. Told them what I just said above, which he didn't comment on. Also told him about changing the clock solving the problem, which he didn't seem to know about. Asked him if he knew of any other workarounds (since changing the clock could conceivably mess up other things on my computer, and it confuses me when I look at the date until I remember) and he said he'd heard that doing a system restore from a few days before would also resolve the problem. Neither is a great resolution, but I'd rather change the clock than do a system restore and lose the last couple of days worth of work.

He said they're working on a software update that will resolve the problem, and just to be sure I made him clarify we should expect one from Tivo, not from Microsoft, that will resolve the problem, but he didn't have an estimate for how long it would be before it was available.

Since I experienced the problem and am still running Win2K, which hasn't been updated in years....

It's nearly impossible for this to be a Windows issue, as I've had the same symptoms of an expiry date issue on 3 different PCs with separate OS's (Win7 x32, Win7 x64, and WinXP). The WinXP PC hasn't had updates applied for at least 4 months.

I can't set my clock back because I'm recording multiple shows at any one time with WMC on this PC, so my only band-aid so far has been to download with kmttg with it set to "use Java to download instead of curl". This is a step back for me because kmttg downloads are about 50% slower than pyTivo downloads on my setup.

As with the the last two problems that affected everyone, TiVo support is full of it.

After restoring my computer's system partition from an image backup made January 28, 2013, without installing any updates issued since that date, or the installation of the TiVo Desktop Plus software, and attempting to transfer recordings directly from my TiVo Premiere over my wired network using Microsoft's Internet Explorer with the URL of https://192.168.1.102 (The IP address assigned by my network) without success, I fully believe that the problem is certainly with the TiVo DVR software.

Just chiming in to agree about changing the time on my PC to correct the file transfer problems I've been having. I successfully transferred files off my TiVoHD yesterday (2/15/2013) but today (2/16/2013)? Nothing but TiVo Desktop showing "the system cannot find the file specified" after failed transfer. This has been irritating me all day long! I've had a similar problem before and cleaning up some old temp files and rebooting usually worked. Not this time though. Among other things, I:
* Checked network settings on my routers and both TiVos (a series 2 and a TiVo HD).
* Unplugged both TiVos and left them unplugged for nearly an hour each before restarting.
* Completed guided setup again (without clearing thumbs, recommendations, schedules, etc)
* Performed fresh installs of TiVo Desktop on my PC
* Cleaned out various cache and temp file directories on my PC
* Poked through (but ultimately did not change) anything in PCs registry
* Rolled back to previous good system restore point (2/13/2013) on my PC to get away from Microsoft security updates that *did* install during the last few days. I don't normally accept automatic Windows updates but they snuck in (somehow) while I was sleeping. Really thought this could be a legit cause of my problems since it turned my Windows Firewall back on (I disabled it previously). No dice.

Been scouring forums all afternoon and no fixes seemed to work. Noticed that the hard drive in my TiVoHD was slightly louder than normal and expected that maybe it was finally dying. Nearly jumped the gun to purchase a new TiVo (Premiere 4XL) but couldn't get over the fact that my series 2 was also suffering the same problem and *only* since today. Fortunately, found this thread and gave it a shot. NO JOKE...immediately after killing all TiVo processes, setting my PCs clock back to 2/13/2013 and restarting TiVo Desktop...and I mean immediately...no more problems. I am currently mid-transfer but will put the clock back to todays date to see if the problem returns. Assuming it does, the questions are now: 1) what doesn't TiVo like about today's date, 2) what is TiVo going to do about fixing the problem, and 3) how quickly is TiVo going to fix it?

I don't want to keep setting my PC back to pre-2/16/2013 just to transfer shows...

After restoring my computer's system partition from an image backup made January 28, 2013, without installing any updates issued since that date, or the installation of the TiVo Desktop Plus software, and attempting to transfer recordings directly from my TiVo Premiere over my wired network using Microsoft's Internet Explorer with the URL of https://192.168.1.102 (The IP address assigned by my network) without success, I fully believe that the problem is certainly with the TiVo DVR software.

Thanks to all!

It has nothing to do with any of that. Apparently TiVos can't hand out session id cookies dated any more recently than Feb. 15, 2013, so the PC has to be lied to about the current date.

Go to the bottom right hand corner of your screen, right-click the time display, click adjust date/time, click the calender to make it think it's the 13th or 14th of February instead of the 16th, and watch Desktop start working like normal.

Or, if TiVo is as slow to fix this as they've been on getting the Premiere's OS out of beta, maybe leave it on February 16th and set to last year or the year before.

Of course if making your computer misinformed about what the date really is screws up something else, well, that's the way the out of date cookie crumbles you.

Just to add confirmations to this. I run Windows 8 Pro and did just recently download and install updates.

But no matter how many times I rebooted the PC, rebooted the Tivos nothing worked. I still got the "The system cannot find the file specified" for all my Tivo downloads. And I have 5 different Tivos. Four of them Premier units. Even the Tivo that is not Premier was failing.

I changed my clock back to Feb 13, 2013 and everything is working just the way that it should.

Thank you for posting the workaround to the problem. I can't leave my date changed backwards, but this is at least a work around until Tivo gets their act together.

Was having the same problem with the "tivo system cannot find the file specified" and I did just what you all said by turning my PC clock back to Feb 1st and it worked! I'm totally shocked! I have three different tivos and all was working just fine last weekend transferring shows from my tivos to my pc (I travel a lot for work) and NOTHING had changed on all fronts from last weekend (except time apparently). I really didn't think that would be the solution but it was! I sure hope they come up with an update to fix that cuz I'm pretty sure that luck is going to run out soon and I won't know what to do then as you all are saying going back again (or further) doesn't work. Come on TIVO!
MJ
P.S. Whoever figured that out...You're a god! Thank you!!!!!

Last edited by mdjwintergreen; 02-17-2013 at 02:03 PM..
Reason: Spelling

I'm having the same problem on my Mac OSX 10.7.5 Lion. Everything was working fine until last week. I changed the date to Feb 15 on my Mac and now I'm able to download. It must be due to iTivo itself and not the operating system. Thanks for the suggestion. What a relief!

Since it's affecting my S3 OLED apparently this issue has been present for a while (and someone reported it with an S2)?

As far as I can tell by googling for HTTP logs from Tivos, that cookie expiry date has been hardcoded to this for TTG transfers ever since they introduced the feature in 2005, from S2 all the way up to recent Premieres.

As to why they decided to use a hardcoded date in February 2013... I couldn't tell you.

Speaking of which, the next "doomsday" date is December 2016. That's when the SSL certificate on the Series 3 boxes expires. I don't have a S2 to test with, but I'm guessing that expires sooner.

There's also client side PKCS12 certificates for iOS/Android software set to expire 2/14/2014. Haven't checked recent versions to see if they have extended that expiration date. Maybe this time next year we'll have a new iOS/Android crisis on hand...

Speaking of which, the next "doomsday" date is December 2016. That's when the SSL certificate on the Series 3 boxes expires. I don't have a S2 to test with, but I'm guessing that expires sooner.

Series 2 cert expires January 9, 2015, at least on the one I have. Of course, 3rd-party client software (and even Tivo Desktop itself presumably, considering it's a curl commandline option) can easily be configured to ignore an expired cert in much the same way it works around the cookie problem.

Series 2 cert expires January 9, 2015, at least on the one I have. Of course, 3rd-party client software (and even Tivo Desktop itself presumably, considering it's a curl commandline option) can easily be configured to ignore an expired cert in much the same way it works around the cookie problem.

SSL is only used to grab the show listings. The actual transfer is not encrypted. I don't think TD uses curl to grab the listing data as such it will probably fail without any way of fixing it. The SSL certificate isn't technically valid since it has no CA so 3rd-party software already likely ignores it.

There's also client side PKCS12 certificates for iOS/Android software set to expire 2/14/2014. Haven't checked recent versions to see if they have extended that expiration date. Maybe this time next year we'll have a new iOS/Android crisis on hand...

That's easy enough to update assuming TiVo doesn't shut down their app development before next year.